Economic Globalization - Then and Now

European Commerce

 Europeans wanted commercial connections with Asia - Columbus and DaGamma looking for spices - Europe recovered from the plague - Monarchies learning to govern more efficiently - Resented Italian city-states for monopoly on goods from Asia through the Middle East - Constant trade deficit with Asia – needed bullion

Christopher Columbus

Portuguese Commerce

 Indian Ocean trade was rich and diverse  Portugal was first to come over – Vasco DaGamma  Portugal didn’t have anything good to trade - so they used piracy to gain control - they had smaller faster ships than India/China  Established a “trading post empire” - took several port cities by force… guns (Macao not taken by force) - didn’t control territories or population - goal was to control commerce

Portuguese Trading Post

Spain and the Philippines

 Spain was the first to challenge the Portuguese - They colonized the Phillippines - It wasn’t too hard b/c they were small competing chiefdoms  Full colonial rule until 1898 - large scale conversion to Catholicism

Philippines Catholic Festival

East India Companies

 Dutch and English both set up private companies to handle colonization - merchants invested, shared the risks - had power to make war and govern conquered peoples  Dutch empire was focused on Indonesia  English empire focused on India’s ports - both gradually evolved into typical colonial domination

Dutch East India Company

 Controlled both shipping and production of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace  Seized small spice-producing islands and forced people to sell only to the Dutch  Destroyed the local economy of the Spice Islands; made the Dutch rich with Dutch planters and slaves

Dutch East India Company

British East India Company

 Not as well financed or as commercially sophisticated as the Dutch; couldn’t break into the Spice Islands  Major ports in India – Bombay, Calcutta, Madras  Could not compete with the Mughal Empire on land - negotiated with local rulers  Britons traded pepper and other spices, but cotton textiles became more important

Japan

     Portuguese reached Japan in the mid 1500’s Japan at the time was divided by constant conflict among feudal lords (daimyo) supported by samurai At first, Europeans were welcome - 300,000 convert to Christianity Then Japan is unified under the Tokugawa Shogunate - increasingly regarded Europeans as a threat to unity - expulsion of missionaries - massive persecution of Christians - Japanese were barred from travel abroad - Europeans were banned, except the Dutch at a single site Why do you suppose the Dutch could stay but not Spain???

Samurai

Silver and Global Commerce

 Silver was even more important than the spice trade  Spanish America produced around 85 percent of the world’s silver  China’s economy - huge / growing demand for silver  1570s: all Chinese taxes were to be paid in silver  Foreigners with silver could purchase more Chinese products than before

Silver - Central to World Trade

 “silver drain” to Asia - why do you suppose most silver wound up here?

 The Spanish “piece of eight” was widely used for international exchange  Potosí, Bolivia - largest city in the Americas because it was at the world’s largest silver mine - the city’s wealthy European elite lived in luxury - Native American miners lived in horrid conditions

Effects of Silver Trade

 Spain – caused inflation, no real economic growth  Spain lost its dominance when the value of silver fell ca. 1600  Japanese government profited from silver - Tokugawa shoguns used silver revenues to defeat rivals and unify the country - worked with the merchant class to develop a market based economy - heavy investment in agriculture and industry

Effects of the Silver Trade

 In China, silver further commercialized the country’s economy.

- people needed to sell something to obtain silver to pay their taxes - economy became more regionally specialized - deforestation was a growing problem; wasn’t addressed as it was in Japan  Europeans were essentially middlemen in world trade.

- funneled American silver to Asia - Asian commodities took market share from European products

“Silver Drain” Map

Fur in Global Commerce

 Europe’s is in demand of fur by 1500 (little ice age)  Intense competition for the furs of North America - became very profitable for Indians in N. America - they received iron tools, guns, textiles, liquor - unfortunately fell victim to diseases  Russian fur trade - Fur – chief motive for Russian expansion - Similar toll on native Siberians as it had on Indians - Russia – no competition like in Americas - forced Siberians to provide fur, no negotiations

A Beautiful Summer Day in Siberia

The Atlantic Slave Trade

 From 1650’s – 1850’s about 11million slaves brought to Americas from Africa.

- millions more died on the journey - vast human tragedy - diaspora created racially mixed societies in the Americas

Slave Trade Map

The Slave Trade in Context

   Most human societies have had slaves Africans had practiced slavery and sold slaves for centuries - trans-Saharan - took slaves to Mediterranean world - East African slave trade Slavery differed, depending on where and when - slaves were often assimilated into their owners’ households - children of slaves were sometimes free, sometimes slaves - Islamic world preferred female slaves - Atlantic slave trade favored males - In the Islamic world, slaves often had military and political status

Slavery in the Americas

 The scale and importance was enormous  Plantation agriculture – denied all rights “property”’ - most slaves prior worked in domestic capacity or worked in shops  Slave status was inherited - little possibility of manumission  Slavery was wholly identified with Africa and with “blackness”  Slave – from the word “slav” – sugar plantations in Mediterranean - Ottoman conquest of Constantinople cut off supply

Plantation Slavery

Why Africans????

     Slavs weren’t available Indians died of European diseases Europeans were a bad alternative: Christians from marginal lands couldn’t be enslaved; indentured servants were expensive Africans were farmers, had some immunity to diseases, were not Christian, and were readily available Long debate on how much racism was involved - Muslims had some racism in regard to sub-Saharan Africans - English had developed anti-Irish racism, may have transferred it to Africans

The Slave Trade in Practice

     Europeans traded freely with African elites for slaves - from capture to sale on the coast, trade was in African hands Destabilization of African societies - smaller societies were completely disrupted by slave raids from their neighbors Who was enslaved?

- people from West Africa: criminals, POW’s, debtors Africans generally did not sell their own peoples - there was no sense of being “African” 80 percent of slaves ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean - about 15% died on the middle passage

Slave Ship

The Impact in Africa

 Slowed Africa’s growth while population expanded in Europe/China - Sub-Saharan Africa: 1600-18% 1900-6% of worlds pop - stagnation and political disruption in Africa  Very few breakthroughs in agriculture or industry - very little demand for African products only its’ people

Political Effects

 some kingdoms (Kongo, Oyo) gradually disintegrated  some took advantage of the slave trade  Benin – one of the largest states (west Africa) - monarchy - avoided the slave trade - diversified exports  Aja-speaking peoples to the west of Benin - slave trade disrupted several small, weak states - involved in slave trade, controlled by the monarchy - annual slave raids by the army - government depended on slave trade for revenue

Kingdom of Benin

Reflections - Globalization

 What is globalization?

 Who is Fukuyama?

 Globalization Back Then - communication between India and England in 1700’s took 18 months. IPA - empire building and slavery - western civilizations were not the center  Compare Globalization Now

Globalization